Video & Sound Production | Task 1

on

24/04/2024- __/05/2024 (Week 1-Week 4)
Lizzie Tanaka (0362065)
Video & Sound Production | BDCM | Taylor's University
Task 1: Exercises

Lectures

Week 1
On week 1, we were briefed on our tasks for the semester. Mr Martin also introduced us to the interface of Adobe Premiere Pro and how to import clips. 

Week 2 (Self Learning)

For week 2, we had our self learning session. Mr Martin provided us with the PPT to guide us throughout. The exercises are done and recorded under 'Exercises.'


Week 3
Week 4

Instructions


Exercises 

Week 1

Week 1 asynchronous class materials reflection (NOT more than 3 paragraphs)

On the first week, I learned more about shot size, composition techniques and camera angles in depth. I'm a bit familiar on shot sizes but the rest are new to me. Shot sizes are referring to the amount of space in a frame, which can convey information and emotional effects depending on its usage. Camera angles are equally important as well as they can result in various perspectives of the characters and show important information. Camera angles typically refer to how the camera is positioned to the subject that is filmed. 

Composition is essentially how visual elements are carefully arranged to fit inside a shot such as the placement of the subject or the overall balance of the shot. Using composition correctly can help direct the audiences' eye to the main idea, convey meanings and emotions or create point of interests. These three combined are filmmakers' essentials to make films that can clearly convey emotions, meanings, ideas to the viewers. 

Quiz result: 13/15

Fig 1.1 Quiz result W1


Mr Martin also gave us video editing practice to introduce us to the basics of Premiere Pro where we are taught to import clips and combine them seamlessly. Below links are my result. 

Fig 1.2 Video Editing; Doritos Ad (W1)


Fig 1.3 Video Editing; Mints Ad (W1)



Week 2

Slides materials: PPT FRAMING

1. Name the shots in slide 6-7 & 11-14 from the video

John Lewis Christmas Advertisement 2014
a. Medium close up
b. Wide shot
c. Medium shot
d. Wide shot
e. Close up
f. Medium shot
g. Medium wide shot
h. Medium wide shot

Slide 11-14:  from "Unsung Hero," Thai Life Insurance Ad

S11
1. Close up
2. Close up
3. Close up
4. Medium close up
S12
1. Medium wide
2. extreme wide shot
3. Medium wide shot
4. Closeup 
S13
1. Full shot
2. Medium close up 
3. Medium wide
4. Medium
S14
1. Medium wide
2. Medium
3. Medium
4. Wide shot

2. Slide 15: Depth of field

> Area of acceptable sharpness in front of and behind the subject. how blurry/sharp the area around your subject

> Shallow depth of field: small area in focus, subject in focus and background is blurred.

> Deep depth of field: larger area of focus, keeping everything sharp and clear. 


Fig 1.4 Deep and shallow depth of fields


Foreground > Element of the composition closest to us is the foreground

Background > Furthest element away from us

Middle ground > The area in between

Fig 1.5 Example image of foreground, background, middle ground


3. Screen direction (slide 16)
a. The 180 degree rule: an imaginary eyeline between characters or a character and an object. When they keep the camera on one side of this axis, the characters will maintain the same left/right relationship. 
b. Continuity in cinematography: maintaining a consistency of both time and space in the film, essentially making the mechanisms of filmmaking invisible. 
c. The video is following the 180 degree rule, since one character is always at the same side, either left or right, maintaining them at the same eyeline. 

4. Dynamic Screen Direction 
> A more dynamic screen direction can convey emotions, better actions and narrative progression. It can include a tracking shot on a character or a choreography of the actors and the cameras. 

5.  3-Act Structure: Lalin & Everything, Everywhere, All At Once

a. LALIN
  • Which part is act 1, act 2, act 3 respectively? Describe each act with ONE paragraph only. 
                - Act 1: Where Lalin explains her background why she moved to Japan and why she became a social media figure. Act 1 in Lalin sets the story plot. 
                - Act 2: Act 2 begins when Astronaut texts her and asks Lalin to be the translator of his book. They start texting regularly and Lalin develops a feeling. Everything goes well until they plan to meet up and Astronaut is already at the cafe but Lalin still can't bring herself to show her face behind the mask. She asks Astronaut guy to go home
                - Act 3: Act 3 takes off when Lalin reads the book Astronaut made based on their story. There is denouement in this short film in act 3, where the audience obtained an explanation of both characters and who this Astronaut guy is. 
  • What is the inciting incident in the movie? 
                - Lalin is bullied for her looks and that made her move to Japan and begin her social media persona in order to be liked. 
  • What is the midpoint scene in the movie?
                - When Lalin can't bring herself to show her real face to Astronaut and askes him to go home. 
  • What is the Climax scene in the movie?
                - When Lalin realizes who the Astronaut guy actually is and that the book was dedicated to their story. She chases the guy down but she was too late. 
  • What is the theme of the movie?
                - Society, love, values, self-awareness


b. Everything, Everywhere, All at Once

  • Which part is act 1, act 2, act 3 respectively? Describe each act with ONE paragraph only. 
            - Act 1: Part 1 (Everything) is the act 1, where they show the audience what a typical day in Evelyn's life is like such as her being busy with the receipts, preparing the party, and her also serving the laundromat customers. The inciting incident is also in this part.  
            - Act 2: The second act, I believe, is the one where Evelyn was successful in running away from the soldiers from Alphaverse that is instructed to kill her by Gong-gong (who thinks Evelyn's mind has also been corrupted by Jobu). She jumped throughout many universes by doing weird stuffs in her actual universe, running with Joy and Waymond. Evelyn got to see the Everything Bagel after jumping to other universes alongside Jobu and was initially convinced. She started making damages in her other universes but then Waymond (in her actual universe) convinced her about kindness. 
            - Act 3: Act 3 is where she realized she needed to neutralize the other universes. She simultaneously fixed her own problems in her actual universe (Joy having a girlfriend, befriending the office lady, etc). And soon she tried to fight Jobu's minions with her empathy, using her knowledge about these people from other universes. Then she attempts to stop Jobu entering the everything bagel, with Waymond and Gong-gong helping her. 
  • What is the inciting incident in the movie? 
            - In the first lift scene where Waymond quickly tells her what's going on, giving her the earbuds (?) and telling her to register to the desk or go to the janitors office, also giving her the paper guide to jump to other universes. 
  • What is the midpoint scene in the movie?
            - The midpoint of the movie, I think is when Evelyn thought it was over when she was arrested with Waymond and the office lady but then Jobu Tupaki (Joy) appears, without her knowing that she's the actual villain. Here, she still calls her Joy and finally realizes that her daughter is evil. 
  • What is the Climax scene in the movie?
            - I think the climax scene in the movie is where Jobu brings Evelyn to fight and keeps on changing the universe, confusing Evelyn. This point on, it seems like Evelyn is losing the fight and Jobu brings her to the bagel, telling her about why she made the bagel and kind of convincing Evelyn to join her. 
  • What is the theme of the movie?
            - Good vs Evil, survival, values, family 
Fig 1.6 Quiz Result W2


Editing Practice: Lalin


Fig 1.7 Lalin Editing Practice (W2)


Week 2 Task: Film 8 different shots and angles with a partner

VSP WEEK 2_EXERCISE_FRAME SHOOTING (LIZZIE & TYRA)

Fig 1.8 Frame Shooting Exercise (W2)


Reflection Week 2:
Throughout the materials from week 2, I've learned a lot about filmmaking, both during the production and even how a plot is very carefully designed. 




Week 3

Week 3 Self Learning: Storyboard

https://forms.gle/GZaU7tUJVwBTQuGH6  Score 9/10


Fig 1.9 Quiz result W3

Week 3 Reflection: 
On week 3, I realized how important a storyboard is to a film making process, throughout the pre-production up until the post-production. Storyboard is a sequence of a film usually resembling comic strips to visually plan the shots, flow, ideas, even details for the production process such as camera angles and movements. 

Storyboard artists are the people who usually draws them. The storyboard include details about a scene which helps the director later on in the production filming process to guide them what a scene should appear like, but adjustments are allowed to be done. During the post production, storyboard is also used as a reference to how a scene should appear, like transitions, colors, sounds. The editor uses the storyboard as their guide. 

I think storyboards help the process to be smoother and avoid unnecessary issues too, it ensures everything goes well until the movie is done. 


Week 4

Production Stages

Reading: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/stages-of-film-production/ 

Quiz: https://forms.gle/1FuJL1mKmFqeCdZp8 

Result: 5/5

Fig 1.10 Quiz result week 4 (1)

Production Crews

Reading:
https://www.govtech.com/education/news/the-roles-of-the-production-team.html 
https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/film-crew-positions/ 

Quiz:https://forms.gle/965RgTsfLfVP7v8P9

Result: 4/5

Fig 1.11 Quiz Result W4 (2)

Week 4 Reflection: 

In week 4, I learned a lot about the overall process of what happens behind a film and how every single crew member is equally important to the process. There are 3 production stages; pre-production, production, and post-production. Before pre-production, there's also the development process where a producer/screenwriter usually gets an idea and develops a package that acts like a proposal to be approved and then move to the pre-production process where all details are worked on. Sometimes these packages are not easily approved so it goes around different firms and companies. 

A production crew is a whole team of professionals working together to create a film. There's numerous divisions of a production crew. I just learned that even a role that so small such as caterer who takes care of the crew and cast meals are important. I realized that these professionals are what ensures the entire process goes well. 


Project 1: Audio Dubbing Process Work

I began this project by rewatching the scene in the actual movie to get the actors' emotions, the sound effects, the ambiences and the overall timing. With a group, Mr. Martin assigned us to work together and find the sound effects and ambience used in each scene. After we compiled it all, I worked on the individual parts to find the links for the sound effects and ambience. 

Most of the sound effects are from Freesound and some (layered) are from 99 Sounds free Foley Sounds pack. Once I've collected the basic sounds, I worked on the recording. 

The recording was probably the most embarrassing and awkward part of this whole project, since I'm not used to hear my voice in such an expressive way (?). I recorded my voice with the muted video playing to match with the mouth movements and speed. 

Starting out the editing process, I imported the muted clip and all my dubbing audios first. I matched my audio with the clip and started the sfx part. Some sound effects by this point were still missing like the sound of the mop taken out by Evelyn, and the sound of the metal pipe forcefully pulled out. 

Some SFX weren't as good as I expected once matched. For example, the neck snap audio at first wasn't as crunchy (?) and high-pitched, it was too deep and somehow muffled. So I searched for other sounds and decided to layer two. The first neck snap audio, I also altered the pitch using the pitch shifter audio effects with a +10 to make it sound higher. 

Fig 2.1 Neck snap SFX (W4) 

There were other parts where I layered the audio, such as the wood door breaking here. Reason being it sounds kind of flat. One audio here is a bit deeper while one is a bit more high pitched. 

Fig 2.2 Wood door breaking SFX (W4)

Fig 0.0 below is also the sound of metal pipe pulled out, which I struggled in finding the sfx in. Eventually I found one but when matched, it sounds different to the actual movie, a bit like the metal was very heavy. I combined it with a sound of metal clanking to make it sound a bit higher pitched. 

Fig 2.3 Pipe pulled out SFX (W4)

With the ambience sound, I just lowered the volume and added the constant gain on the beginning and on some cases like when the office scene switches to the janitor scene, I put exponential fade to the audio at the end and lowered the volume for the janitor scene. 

On some voiceovers like Waymond's yells before he was murdered, I used the pitch shifter to make it sound deeper. I noticed that if I decreased the semi-tones, even just to -1, it makes the voice way too deep. So I worked around the cents part, decreasing it to -100 to lower the voice just a bit. 

Fig 2.5 Pitch shifter settings (W4)

The rest of the SFX are thankfully good enough already so I just adjusted the timing to match the video, some are layered but not too significant, such as the door opening & the creak since it was two separate audios. The voiceovers didn't take much time to adjust, just trimming some parts of the audios and matching it with the actors' mouth. 


Final Result:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1yc87ToMLGtSVb9IrstaXeE0wNv0WN3tl4ql34WU92DY/edit?usp=sharing 

Fig 2.6 Final Result (Week 4)




Exercise 2: Sound Shaping (Week 9)
In exercise 1, we have to record a 5 second audio and edit them according to the briefs. In class, we did a demo.

  1. Voice of phone call.
I used the parametric equalizer for this effect. I raised the point 3 to the top and the L and H downwards.  
Fig 3.1 Parametric Equalizer for phone call effect


2.Voice coming from inside of closet
                
I think that a voice coming from inside a closet (that is heard outside) would sound muffled so I used the scientific filter and changed the cutoff to 578hz. This makes the voice sound like it's muffled. 
            
Fig 3.2 Scientific filter for closet effect


3. Voice of toilet/bathroom

For the voice in the bathroom, I used the reverb effect. I mainly played with the decay time and the wet output level to increase the echo. 

Fig 3.3 Reverb for bathroom sound effects


4. Underground cave

I used several effects because I think a voice from an underground cave is a combination of a bit muffled voice and echoes. 

For the muffled effect, I use the scientific filter again and played around with the cutoff. I added delay to the voice and echo as well to achieve that 'echoing' sound. 

Fig 3.4 Settings for underground cave effect

5. Alien voice

This is the most challenging one, I'm not sure how an alien should actually sound. From hearing other people's work in Youtube, I concluded that it's sometimes a high-pitched voice with a robotic sound effect to it and a little like distorted sounds in the back. 

Initially I started with the angry gerbil preset in the 'pitch shifter' effect. But I thought it lacks the robotic feel and the distortion. I use another pitch shifter to lower the pitch since I thought the angry gerbil preset was too high. 

I added delay effect to it to achieve the 'robotic' feel and the distortion effect is achieved by using the parametric equalizer and the distortion effect panel. 

Fig 3.5 Settings for alien voice effect


FINAL RESULT SOUND SHAPING: 


Fig 4.1 Call

Fig 4.2 Closet

Fig 4.3 Bathroom

Fig 4.4 Cave

Fig 4.5 Alien Orc

Feedback

Week 3
- Extreme close-up should really be close (one eye)
- Keep in mind of the composition such as the top and bottom space between the edge of the frame and the subject

Reflections

Overall I think this is an interesting topic. I've never thought of dabbling into the whole sound editing field but I think this is something that I had fun and enjoyed during the process. It was a little awkward to record my voice into videos and edit them but I think it's an intriguing thing to learn.

Over the past few weeks of learning about sound, I've find that expressions in your voice really matters, especially in the dubbing part. It's important so that the video does not seem awkward and strange. I've underestimated how hard it is for audio dubbers. 

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